Various methods are used for separating sausage chains into single sausages.
DE 4 307 637 has already described the partitioning of the sausage chain between two transport devices. A disadvantage with this method is the parting between the transport devices. Due to the lateral force occurring during parting at the parting point of the sausage it may be deflected to the side, i.e. it can collide with an edge of the second transport device and become damaged. It is also possible that the complete sausage skein becomes jammed and the machine has to be stopped to remedy the fault. Furthermore, it is very difficult to part very short sausage products, because they have to be parted without being held cleanly by the second transport device.
In DE 19802101 a method of parting sausage chains is described in which only one transport device is used. The portioning point is produced by the transport device. The sausages however lie close together. Primarily during the manufacture of products with natural casing it is very difficult to produce a suitable gap between the sausages so that the sausages can be properly parted at the gap. Producing the gap is only successful when the skin brake is firmly applied, which in turn causes high stress on the casing. This can lead to bursting of the casing and thus to faults.